Personal Narrative

On Jan 17, 1968 my bird YL-35 and another were sent to Khe Sanh to relieve the crews of YL-52 and another. We landed at Khe Sanh and ran to the bird. It was YL-52; its crew chief was Donnie Winkles. He said they went into the zone and took fire and Jimmy Post was hit. The bird had 7 or 8 hits from the nose to the gunner’s window. James Harvey Post died helping the Marines on the ground. I'll never forget him.

Submitted by: Don Lockwood, HMM-362, Crew Chief, YL-35, 20030818

Personal Narrative

The "another" was my bird, YL-2, previously YL-32. I was the first bird in the zone to pick up two WIA's, walking wounded, “you think I have forgotten what happened”.

Jim was my gunner for a while, then they exchanged him for Cpl Villarreal, my gunner. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I can tell you all that happened. Major Upshaw was my pilot that day. I live with that memory till now, I wake up in the middle of the night and think of Jim Post, sometimes I don’t sleep too much, the other crew-chief was a blonde-haired marine, maybe about 5 foot 8 inches tall, when we pulled out of the zone, I heard on the ICS, "gunner been hit", we did a left bank-180, and I took my camera and took a picture of the damn LZ.

I knew Jim had been hit, I told myself, If he dies, I will live for him, in memory, I still have that damn picture...I can give you allot of other details, but it tears my rear-end up, you understand? I have always wanted to contact his family and let them know where their son died. I know they would like to know the details. Jim had extended 6 months for a tour, he didn’t have to be there ... I used to say “whoever flies with me, flies with the Great Spirit as pilot”, to myself.